Don't Look - No Promises
by Honeybeemeadows
Summary: "I didn't know you had a bike," she stuttered. "Yeah, well, some chick stole my car." He winked at her. "She jacked the tranny somewhere halfway to the ocean. It took me and the boys two days to get her back to town and it's gonna take another two weeks to get her back up and running." Bella's mouth fell open. "That was your car?" - A love song for Hadley Hemingway.
1. Chapter 1

**Summer - 1958**

The girls stole the car at midnight.

It was always midnight. Always a different car. Always half a pint in. Always done with their teeth in their lips trying to muffle their drunken giggles and always for the thrill of it, nothing more than that. It was always boredom, small town life guarded by a great big forest. The options for amusement were few and far between, and the girls had been trying to entertain themselves for far too long. By seventeen, their creativity was running low or not running at all or ran just for the bad sorts of things because the only activities left were either dull and bland or illegal.

This time it was a Thunderbird. A new one. Shiny baby blue paint and silver hubcaps. White leather seats. Sitting low and squat and perfect for picking.

Rose always claimed the backseat.

Alice always fiddled with the radio.

Bella always drove.

Always.

Bella loved the car the moment it growled to life. Not a purr, not a smooth turnover, but the roar of a mechanical beast. The big engine beneath the hood took up most of the vehicle and for good reason. It churned to life as laboriously as a dragon waking from a sixteen hundred year sleep, loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. The girls squealed as Bella pressed her foot to the gas too hard, and the car leapt forward, slamming all of them back in their seats.

Their exit from the city limits took less than two minutes.

Roaring all the way.

Rose started it. She always started it. When she stole her mother's lipstick in fourth grade and showed up to school with a cherry red mouth, she had gotten detention from the headmistress, a full week of writing lines and another of cleaning classrooms. By the next day, all the girls were sporting contraband makeup. She was twelve when she started to style her hair, bangs coiled high above her forehead in victory rolls and a ponytail that fell in one thick curl against her back. Thirteen when she started to roll her skirt up before school. Fifteen when she bought herself a bra. Sixteen when she let some guy feel her up in the back hall bathroom during a pep rally, and almost seventeen when she got busted for smoking a cigarette in the same place. She liked to drink, liked to cuss, and liked to kiss boys just long enough to keep them strung around her middle finger. She was the daughter of a single mother who most of the town considered loose, so it didn't surprise anyone that Rose was kind of loose herself.

Rose was always the spark, and this spark liked to steal cars.

Alice didn't start it. She always ended it. Buttoned Rose back up and tugged her back down when too much started to show, talked up security guards and talked down teachers when Rose took it too far. Alice put a stop to several things that could have gotten them killed or arrested or worse, beforehand or at just the right moment. She refused to drive to the city for a visit to a bar that had burned down later that night, and she drug Rose and Bella away from a party on the beach that got raided by Bella's own father the moment they slipped into the trees. Alice was polite as a child, well-mannered as a kid, and polished as a teenager; her mouth and her particular brand of magic had gotten the girls out of many a tough spot, many a time.

Being the mayor's daughter probably helped.

That left Bella somewhere in the middle. The padding between two rocks, the filling between two cookies. A plain Jane brunette bracketed on either side by a long, lithe blonde and a tiny dark-haired girl with just a touch of dwarfism. She was the daughter of a dead mom and a cop, average by her own standards. She wore the same pink silk jacket and slapped-on lipstick every morning. She drove the cars Rose wanted to steal and smoked the cigarettes she wanted to buy, let Alice dictate where she drove and let her decide when it was time to return home.

She egged Rose on, but deferred to Alice. Always the enabler.

The girls cruised the back roads in the Thunderbird, gravel and mud and passing trees illuminated by headlights. The car drove like a dream. Like a beast, but like a dream too. Sailing over the ground like the tires weren't even touching the earth, fishtailing around corners an inch above the dirt. They were halfway to the ocean and almost above the treeline when Rose finally ponied up. She held a little bottle full of amber liquid over the front seat, nudging Alice in the shoulder. Alice grinned as she took the bottle, taking a solid swig without a grimace before passing it along to Bella. Alice might be a good girl, the one who kept Rose on the straight, but Rose was Alice's excuse to live a little, and there was a wild child hiding somewhere just below Alice's pretty facade. Which meant Alice didn't put a stop to everything.

"How'd you get this anyway?" Bella took a small swallow and passed the bottle back, watching in the rearview as Rose took it with a smirk.

"I let that guy from the all-nighter in PA get off on my tits." Rose pushed her breasts together. "Did you know a dick fits right in there between them like a saus-"

"Rose!" Alice squealed and then, "Bella!" as the car fishtailed in the gravel.

"Gross," Bella chuckled under her breath, getting the beast back under control.

"What? So I let some guy rub himself on me for booze; you're drinking it," Rose sneered at Alice, taking a hefty swallow as she said it.

Alice pulled her lips back in the same kind of grimace that should have followed her shot of whiskey but hadn't. "Boys are disgusting. I don't know how you can let them do that kind of stuff to you."

"I don't let them. I allow them," Rose stated. "There's a difference."

The beast broke loose.

The tires touched down long enough to catch the gravel and send the steering wheel right out of Bella's grip. The car twirled like a top, and Bella glanced over her shoulder just once while the car was spinning. Alice was, predictably, screaming. Rose was, predictably, mid-drag off her cigarette, singing along to the radio as though she didn't even care. Three full turns and the beast lurched to a stop in the middle of the road, facing the opposite direction. A bone-rattling shudder before the vehicle sighed one last time and died with a puff of acrid smoke from under the hood, metal grinding as the entire car slumped in defeat.

"Oh, shit," Alice laughed. "Now look what we've done."

* * *

Edward watched them steal his car.

Sat in the dark on his porch with a fading cigarette between his lips and allowed them to pick the lock. Three girls in matching jackets, matching curled hair, matching skirts. Rolled up short and tugged down tight, eyes lined with wings and lips lined with blood. Hairdos and kitten heels and enough bare skin to make his mouth water.

Which was why he basically let them steal the Bird right out from underneath his nose.

He knew who they were, public school girls from the other side of town. There were no uniforms at Forks Municipal, which left them free to costume themselves. Girls at Highmeadow, his school, were just plain boring. Judies, all of em. Bangs that hid their eyes and collars clasped around their necks. Skirts to ankles, sleeves to wrists, so much left to the imagination that it wasn't even worth the effort. But these girls, the ones in pink, they were all undone. Three buttons deep and you got cleavage. Two rolls up and you got thighs. One knot to the bottom and you got flashes of stomach. They swept their hair off their faces like they were proud to be looked at, and they liked the ice cream shop a few blocks from his house, the tiny rundown one with the blackberry cobbler every Sunday, vanilla cream melting on top, more like church than church, if you asked him. Like a message from God that life was a sweet mouthful if you just looked in the right places.

He'd been looking at those girls for a while now.

The blonde was too tall for him, nearly his height, which made him fidgety for some reason. He liked staring down at a girl, liked tucking them under his arm so they belonged to him somehow. But the other one was small, too small, so small he was sure she might still be a child. A near foot under short-statured.

The one he had his eye on, little-big-eyes, that long brown hair and those hips and the fuck-me mouth painted pink instead of red, she was the one who got in behind the wheel.

He could have stopped them. But he didn't.

He let them take off, and then he raced the three miles to the reservation. Fuming. Hot. Itchy under the collar and he couldn't quite figure out why. He threw rocks at the window until he shattered a pane, Jacob's scowling, sleepy face behind it. Jacob didn't miss a beat. Picked that rock up and lobbed it right back at Edward. Hard. Edward leapt aside as the rock buried itself in the grass less than a foot from where he stood and glared up at Jacob.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jacob grumbled.

"I got a problem," Edward hissed. "The Bird was lifted."

"Lifted?"

"Those girls, the ones with the ridiculous jackets and the ice cream? They fucking took it."

"What do you mean they took it?"

"Shimmied the door. Got it started. Drove off." Edward shrugged, not exactly sure he wanted to admit that he'd watched this happen.

"Well, fuck, man. What'dya expect me to do about it?" Jacob rubbed his eye with the palm of his hand.

"Help me get it back."

They drove for hours, looking but not finding. Nothing on the main roads, nothing on the highway. The pavement was empty, middle of the night, and Jacob's red Chevy was fresh off the line, brand spanking new. It drove like a champ, and Edward knew Jacob was still testing the mechanical wonder, but by the time they had reached the gravel roads that led up the mountain, Jacob was not only testing the truck but Edward's patience too.

"Will you slow the fuck down? You're driving like a lunatic." Edward resisted the urge to grab onto the door frame, and Jacob took a turn too fast.

"It's fun," Jacob laughed, grinning and gunning the engine harder, spinning around the corner and nearly losing control in the gravel. The truck careened wildly, veering from side to side, slamming both of them around as the cab heaved.

"I said, Slow. The. Fuck. Down!" Edward roared, reaching over to punch Jacob hard in the arm.

"Woah, dude, calm down. I got it handled," Jacob grumbled, rubbing his shoulder without letting off the gas. The forest flashed by so fast it made Edward's vision tremble. The truck suddenly felt oddly unstable, as though it could fall apart at any moment, a screw loose somewhere and it was only a matter of time. One good bump. One giant pothole, and the thing was going to come apart in a billion little pieces.

Edward hissed, his breath coming hard and uneven. "Pull over."

"I ain't pulling over."

"Unless you want me putting my fist through this nice new dashboard of yours, you better pull the fuck over."

Jacob didn't do as Edward commanded. Simply stomped on the brakes and pulled the truck up short in the middle of the road. Edward fell out of the cab in a rage and met Jacob at the hood. Between the headlights and the giant cloud of dust settling around them and the anger, he could barely see anything.

"Give me that goddamned vest!" Edward yelled, red-faced and panting. Jacob rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Look, man, you call me out here in the middle of the night to hunt down some girls who stole your ride, and then you give me shit about my driving? Lay off a little, I mean, shit… " Jacob complained.

"You think he'd appreciate you driving like a dickwad?" Edward stepped close enough to punch a finger hard to the left side of Jacob's vest. "Or him?" A finger to the right. "You wanna desecrate the damn thing, fine, but you aren't gonna do it while I'm sitting right there next to you."

Jacob took a step back, his face going stoic."I wasn't gonna kill us. I told you I had it handled."

"Funny, I remember hearing that same thing before." Edward stomped a few feet off and lit a cigarette, shaking too much to even enjoy it. The woods were quiet and still, but his blood was pumping so loud he couldn't hear anything over it.

Two small pinpricks of light peered at him from far down the darkened road, hovering steadily just above the ground. A couple of steps forward revealed the Bird. Abandoned. Doors left wide open. A hairpin on the driver's seat. Still smoking under the hood.

That little bitch.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This hot mess was written for (and beta'd by) my one true love, Hadley.**

 **We sat on her porch at two in the morning with a bottle of champagne, dreaming this little gem up.**

 **The champagne was polished off long before we finished plotting.**

 **This was inspired - HEAVILY - by Alex Turner, a la Arctic Monkeys. Do yourself an enormous favor and google-image that boy.**

 **You will not be disappointed.**

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **HBM**


	2. Chapter 2

Bella woke the next morning, sore in all the wrong places.

Her feet ached, but that was because of the stupid shoes she'd worn last night. Her thighs burned, but that was because of the two mile walk home in those stupid shoes. Her lungs creaked, but that was because of the joint Rose had produced halfway home to ease the agony of their trek. Her back was covered in scratches, but that was from jumping into the bushes when a random three a.m. car roared by, loud yelling voices spilling from the cab.

Her mouth was dry and sticky, and her arms were numb. She was pinned under Rose, who was pinned under Alice, all of them tangled in Alice's not-so-giant bed.

It wasn't until Bella was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, washing her face, that she remembered exactly where she'd seen that car before. The blue one from last night, the one they'd abandoned somewhere up the mountain. It had been parked in front of the ice cream shop last Saturday, the one Alice decided to fall in love with. The one that was really just a shed painted blue with the hand-churned ice cream and the picnic table out front underneath a giant shady tree. The girls had been going there for weeks now, and usually those boys were sitting on the porch swings, eyeballing them from afar.

Those boys.

The ones with the slicked back hair and the vests. The ones that rolled their packs of cigarettes up in their shirt sleeves and smirked when they caught the girls looking back. They wore boots and tattoos and a blatant disregard for authority, licked ice cream from their hands and lips and looked dangerous from far away, even more so up close, draped all over that blue car like they were selling something rare and expensive.

They probably wouldn't like having their pretty new ride ripped off.

Oops.

By the time she emerged from the bathroom, Rose and Alice were awake and already going at each other. Rose was still in her dress from yesterday, rumpled hair and grouchy face, with her arms folded over her chest. Alice was half-naked and completely agitated, pointing her finger at Rose.

"You're a slut, that's what you are," Alice accused.

"Who are you calling a slut?" Rose barked. "I wasn't the one who let Mable Hendricks kiss me in the locker room last year."

Bella's mouth dropped open.

Alice blanched.

"That's not true," she whispered.

"Yes, it is," Rose stated. "I saw it."

"It was her idea," Alice stuttered, the pale turning bright red as she flushed.

"What's worse? A slut, or a lesbian?" Rose sneered, and Alice didn't even blink before she lunged. With a shriek of fury, she had Rose pinned to the mattress, a pile of nails and sheets and screaming. Alice sat on Rose's chest and slapped at her as Rose clawed Alice's sides, her face sandwiched between Alice's thighs and her hair caught beneath Alice's knees.

"You conceited bitch!" Alice yelled. "You let guys you don't even know put their - stuff - between your boobs!"

"Say it, Alice," Rose sneered. "Just say it. It doesn't hurt."

Alice only hit her some more.

"Dick," Rose moaned, loud and theatrical and on a roll. "Cock," she cried as Alice hit harder. "Prick," she groaned. "Fuckrod."

"Okay, okay, enough!" Bella yelled, wrenching the girls apart, her arms spread between them, warding them off to opposite ends of the mattress. "We don't have time for this today. We gotta figure out what we were actually doing last night, in case anyone asks."

Alice was red-faced and panting hard, either pissed off or turned on, but Bella wasn't sure which. "I was burying Rose's body behind the old windmill," she growled. "It took me four hours, and I was home by ten, tucked in bed, fast asleep."

"I was letting some guy put his stuff between my tits," Rose jeered.

"No," Bella sighed, rolling her eyes. "We were at my house watching a movie, and then we came here because my bed is too small, and you're both too conceited to sleep on the floor."

* * *

Edward wouldn't admit it, but he was stalking those girls.

That girl.

They were easy to trail. All that matching pink and the legs and the hair... they stood out. Made it simple. He spotted them walking down Baker Street and lagged behind a couple hundred feet all the way to the ice cream shop. They were giggling and looped together at the elbows, the brown-haired one smashed in the middle, her butt swinging, and her hair bouncing behind her. He couldn't keep his eyes off her. He knew it was wrong, knew his leering was going to get him noticed, but he didn't care. Played it cool. Let them tromp right up the steps of that little ice cream shop before he ran clear to Seth's house, eight blocks away.

"We're going for ice cream," he said, bursting through the door.

"Again?" Seth's mouth fell open.

"Fuck, yeah!" Jacob jumped to his feet, heading for the door, counting his change. It was seven cents a cone, and Edward usually had to spot him a nickel. Seth groaned from the couch.

"I'm getting fat, man. I can't keep going there like this."

"You sound like a woman," Jacob laughed.

"No, seriously, what happens when we can't get on our bikes, or behind a steering wheel, 'cause we got no self-control?" Seth palmed his gut, the paunch bulging underneath his shirt.

"I ain't gaining." Edward straightened, his own stomach flat despite the sporadic indulgence that was now much too regular to claim spontaneity.

"That's because you let that damn cone slide clear down your arm, staring at those girls. Half of it ends up on the ground," Seth scowled. "Plus, you could eat a damn horse and still be a skinny motherfucker."

"Hey, fuck you," Edward spit.

"Woah there, ladies," Jacob chimed in, stepping between them. "Let's not get our knickers twisted."

It took so long to pry Seth off the couch, Edward missed the girl by a matter of minutes.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Dearest Darling Hadley Hemingway owns my heart and my keyboard.**

 **Well, not really. But close.**

 **Thank you for reading along.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	3. Chapter 3

Bella was driving her father's new station wagon down Hemlock Street two days later when she saw him again.

The radio was tuned to the newest station, the one her father grumbled about, that dreadful rock and roll, the Chief called it. It was her favorite. If she turned it up loud enough, she could feel the guitars in her heartstrings, the drums behind her eyes, the melody trapped in her blood until it was singing along, and she slipped right into the costume folds of the song. The girl with the body of a lover and the soul of a siren. She wanted to be those guitar strings, caressed by rough fingers until she was wailing. She wanted to be that microphone, the place where chapped lips and exhaled breath pressed up against. She wanted to be those drums, pounded upon until the rhythm was buried beneath her skin so strong she'd never forget it.

The light ahead changed, flashing red, and Bella stomped hard on the brake pedal, her bottom lifting off the seat with the effort to stop the beast in time. The Ford was too big for her, too much power her father said, just before he grumbled about the radio. She'd promised to wear her seatbelt. Promised to follow all the rules and to err on the side of caution. She was a good girl, a copper's daughter.

But she had also promised not to listen to the radio either.

A roar suddenly drown out the music as a motorcycle pulled up beside her. She glanced over and then whipped her head straight forward, gripping the steering wheel tight as she gulped. It was him. The guy with the blue car and the hair combed back shiny and slick. The wind had blown it loose, now messy and tumbled on his head, and he had the same kind of glasses her father wore with the shiny reflective lenses.

He had a tattoo on his arm and a dirty white t-shirt and a vest covered in patches and a face that made her want to crawl out of her skin.

"Well, hi there, doll."

Oh God.

He was leaning in the window, the passenger's side, his arms folded over the door and a godawful sexy smirk on his face. The sunglasses now dangled from one hand, and his eyes were so green that Bella felt a little dazed. His bike was propped on its side behind him, abandoned.

"I didn't know you had a bike," she stuttered.

"Yeah, well, some chick stole my car." He winked at her. "She jacked the tranny somewhere halfway to the ocean. It took me and the boys two days to get her back to town, and it's gonna take another two weeks to get her back up and running."

Bella's mouth fell open.

She clamped it shut.

"That was your car?" she asked, trying to sound surprised.

"Beauty, isn't she?" He licked his lips, and Bella wasn't entirely convinced he was talking about the car anymore. The way he was looking at her was downright indecent. "Sold my soul for that jewel, hurts to see her treated so badly."

The light changed, flashing green, and Bella blinked, seeing double.

"Let go," she told him and pressed her foot to the gas before he had time to respond, lurching forward, almost running over his foot. She sped ahead, heart fluttering hard enough to blur her vision, almost making a complete getaway except for the next unfortunate red light.

"You keep running from me like this, and I'm gonna have to chase you!" he yelled over the roar of his motorcycle as he crawled to a stop beside her again. Bella flushed, gripping the wheel even tighter, certain that her father would kill her if she wrecked his nice new car over a boy.

"I'm not running, I'm driving," she told him, chancing a glance in his direction. Bad move. He had his glasses back on, and he was gripping the handlebars tight enough to make his tendons stand upright, and he was leaning toward her, angling the bike with that cocky grin that made her stomach tumble.

"That what you call it? 'Cause the Bird was still smoking when I found her, and I don't think they call that driving, doll."

Wink.

Green light.

Bella lurched forward, nearly stalling the car, and raced ahead of him again.

God hated her, probably because she didn't go to church on the regular anymore. She hit another red.

* * *

Edward chuckled to himself as he pulled up beside her for the third time. She was blushing such a pretty color, looking rattled, and her eyes were bright, sexy, and guilty.

He loved it.

"What would your daddy think about you speeding like this?" he chided her.

"He'd tell me to speed away from boys on motorcycles."

"Ah, we're not all bad. Some of us are just looking for a little fun."

She glared at him, and oh, man, he loved that too. Her face wrinkled, and her lips pulled down, but he had a thing for girls with a mean streak. They were the ones that looked all sweet and nice and won over your parents, then clawed the shit out of your back in your steamed-up car before you drove them home. Kept you on a leash, at arm's length, until they broke, and then they were on you with biting and clawing and the kind of filthy language that could get them a one way ticket to hell if they ever confessed to it.

This one had it buried deep, but it was there.

"I am not a play toy," she spat.

"Sure about that? 'Cause I play for keeps."

She took off again, straight up running the red light. A delivery truck skidded to halt in the intersection to avoid her, and he watched her go, shaking his head in amazement. Girl damn near killed herself to get away from him, and he didn't even know her name. He'd spent most of the day with his hands under the Bird, trying to piece the poor thing back together, and she had the balls to deny causing the damage. He wanted to bend her over the hood and rub her nose in it, like a bad dog who shit in his shoe. Give her a good spanking to make up for the jacked tranny and the chips to the paint job.

He wanted to spread her out across that big back seat and make her beg him for forgiveness.

He drove the bike all around town looking for her, imagining the slide of her panties down her thighs and what her mouth might feel like. Spotted her car in front of a big house with a big gate and sat outside for hours, wondering if she's ever been with a guy before. He hoped so. The innocent ones, the ones who needed you to take over and love on them, give them something soft and sweet, they weren't for him. He wanted a little bit of knowledge. A little understanding, maybe some confidence, enough to get them upright and demanding. Enough that they could tell him where to lick and kiss and bite without stuttering, pant harder, faster, don't stop, don't stop, fuck me, don't stop instead of the virginal silent treatment.

He knew it was loneliness, this infatuation over her. Seth and Jacob tried, but they weren't filling up the big gaping hole in his middle. He was still haunted, still surprised, still too bruised to even think about it much but when he did, it felt like dying must feel. A pull in his gut that just didn't feel survivable, as though his insides were tearing away, and his blood was breaking loose. It had been more than two years, and even still, he ached deep in his belly when he thought about it.

Basically, he blamed everyone and everything but himself.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Hadley is my rock and I am (probably) her hard place.**

 **xo**


	4. Chapter 4

"I look like a whore," Bella said.

"No, you look like a slut. Difference," Rose sighed from her spot on the bed, not bothering to look.

"There's always a difference with you." Bella struggled to adjust the tiny shorts Rose demanded she put on. There was a midsummer party on the beach that night, an invitation printed on brown paper and burned around the edges which decreed that attendees come in costume, or at least a mask. Bella thought it was all a little ridiculous. By her own standards, she dressed up every day. It was fun, for the most part, until Rose had an excuse to pull this kind of crap.

Bella looked like she belonged on the back of that guy's bike. The torn up t-shirt and the shorts and the tights, good god, what was even going on here?

"The boots are a no," Rose said absently.

Bella glanced down at the worn, black leather boots she'd laced up over her calves. They were flat-soled and kind of dirty but considering the last pair of shoes Rose had gotten her caught in, she wasn't taking any chances.

"The boots stay," Bella said, as Alice sauntered through her bedroom door, effectively taking all focus off that evening's footwear.

"What did you do to your hair?!" Bella cried.

"It's called a bob." Alice ruffled the chin length finger with her fingers, smiling.

"You got a hairstyle named after a man? What on earth were you thinking?" Bella shook her head, staring at her friend's scandalously short haircut.

"I think it's hot." Both girls turned to stare at Rose, who was staring at Alice. "What?" Rose shrugged. "I like it. It does something good for you."

"Rose." Alice slapped a hand over her heart, speaking in that snarky tone she'd perfected. "You're being so nice to me. What's wrong?"

"Quit being a complicated bitch and just accept the compliment. Lord… " Rose sighed. Alice turned toward the mirror, and Bella tried to adjust the shorts some more, the black tights beneath them riding in all the wrong places, and the room fell silent. When Bella finally reached an agreement with her clothing and straightened, Rose was staring at Alice through the mirror.

Both of them were licking their lips.

By the time the three girls arrived at the beach, the party was in full swing. They were late, very late, but that was because Alice almost refused to play along with Rose's costumes, which had Bella stripping to her underwear before Rose threw a temper tantrum. As it were, Bella was still in the damned tights. Alice had compromised with jeans that were obscenely tight and a shirt cropped off at her ribs. Rose was in heels that looked impossible to walk in and a dress so small she could barely bend over without showing off stuff she should be keeping to herself. Alice was still glaring at Rose, and Rose was still sneaking glances at Alice, and Bella had no idea what was up with these two. They were always at each other's throats, but it hadn't always been this way. Usually they were tag-teaming Bella, yet it felt like they had no time for her lately, so they focused on beating each other down. Bella left them to their bickering after half an hour of listening to them argue over Rose's sexual escapades, wandering down to the water by herself. She didn't really know anyone here, a mix of kids from the south side of town and the reservation, not the kind she typically mixed with. She felt out of place in her costume. In her trio. In her skin.

"Damn, doll. You're killing it."

He appeared beside her, the guy on the bike, eyeing her before biting his lip. He hadn't followed the rules at all, in the same jeans and the same t-shirt and the same embroidered vest that he wore every other time she'd seen him. He looked like he wanted to eat her.

She felt ridiculous.

"It's just an act." Bella shook her head.

"You'd look fucking perfect riding on my… bike." His jaw twitched.

"You'd look real pretty with a bruise on your cheek," she hissed back, hoping she sounded threatening. Judging from the smirk that spread across his lips, she didn't.

"Dare ya." He winked.

Bella crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head.

"C'mon, I'll give you a free hit, and then we can start playing by the rules." He tapped his cheek with a finger and winked at her again. "You know you want to."

"I don't want anything from you," Bella scowled.

"Come on, doll, don't break my heart."

"Better than your car."

"Yeah, well, turns out... it's worse than we thought." He eyed her pointedly. "There's a crack in the axle, and the gearbox is dust. My pretty Bird is broken."

"That's too bad. Hope you figure out who did it."

"I'm getting closer," he said, edging toward her.

"And what will you do if you catch up?"

"When," he corrected her. "When I catch up. Seems to me, she owes me." He licked his lips. "Big time."

"What could you possibly want?" Bella snapped and he arched a placid eyebrow.

"You on all fours. Biting my sheets," he said.

Bella's mouth dropped open. "Did you really just say that out loud? You did… "

"I want a lot more than that, doll, but I can't say the rest. Don't want to scare you off just yet."

* * *

What a feisty little shit.

She threatened to slap him, and then she blushed apple red when he told her what he really wanted. And he hadn't even told her the best parts yet. How he wanted her on all fours and biting, yes, but also how he dreamt about her every night for an entire week and that he wanted to hear her moan his name in every different way possible. The loud and quiet and soft and raw and taking and giving. He wanted to hold onto her hair and wanted to leave a couple handprints on her backside. Wanted her to paint his neck up with hickeys and hollow out her cheeks around his dick.

He'd never gone down on a girl before, but fuck if he didn't want to bury himself between her legs and let her ride his face.

He couldn't tell her all that.

Not yet.

"You do realize this is a costume party, right? You were supposed to dress up," she accused.

"Oh, I did. I'm the heartbroken biker with a couple of ghosts and great big vice for cute girls with smart mouths. You, in this… " He waved a hand up and down her, licking his lips again. "You look like you could be my girl, on the back of my bike."

"It's stupid, I hate it." Bella fidgeted.

"It's perfect. Except," he faltered, and dropped to one knee in front of her. Bella took a step back, startled, but he caught her by the knee, producing a pocket knife and flicking it open. He thumbed the blade and looked up at her, a smirk on his face and his hand gripping her hard by the leg. "Hold still," he whispered.

She trembled as he plucked the tights off her thigh, lifting the sheer fabric just enough to nick it with the tip of the blade. A hole the size of an orange gaped on her thigh, baring flesh, soft pale pink in a bed of black.

"Stop it," she whispered, voice wavering as he cut another hole, bigger this time near her ankle. His knees were digging into the gravel beach, and his cheek was pressed up against the pocket of her shorts, and the space between her legs was so fucking close to his face he could barely concentrate.

"Not a chance, doll."

Another nick to her opposite leg, and he tucked two fingers inside, her warm skin right there as he pulled at the tights, gaping the pinprick into a hole big enough to disappear beneath the hem of her shorts, baring the soft pale inside of her thigh. He licked his lips and tried to hold back a groan. He had to let go. Stand up. Step back and put some distance between them because he was moments away from pressing his nose up against that seam in her shorts. He shoved his hands into his pockets, hoping his stiff dick wasn't too noticeable, and studied his handiwork from a few feet away. The holes in those tights, holy mother, they made his knees go weak all over. Her breath was coming short, and her eyes were big and wide, and she was stretching her arms out at her sides like she looking for something to hold onto.

"Much better," he told her.

She just shook her head at him, speechless, it seemed.

"Let me take you for a ride," he said, reaching for her hand. She balled her fingers up in the a fist that fit perfectly into his palm, and he held her tight as she tried to step away.

"No, thanks," she stammered.

"Not that kind of ride," he said.

Yet, he thought.

"Then what?" she asked.

"On my bike."

"I don't trust you."

"You don't gotta trust me, doll. You just gotta say yes."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Hadley is my incomparable sunbeam.**

 **She makes my head a much less dark place than it usually is.**

 **Also, she repairs and re-straps on my helmet when I'm stupid enough to take it off.**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	5. Chapter 5

She agreed.

It was crazy. She was crazy. This whole situation was crazy. And this guy was fucking nuts. He buried his nose near her crotch and ripped holes in her tights and now he wanted to go for a ride. She was nodding before she even really thought about it.

Crazy.

"No way, doll. You're up front." He patted the seat in front of him, between his legs, and grinned at her.

"What? No." She shook her head, so nervous she could throw up right now.

"C'mon. It's my favorite way." He held his hand out and waited until she took it, pulling her close and settling her before him. The engine block was hot between her thighs and she was hot between his, his chest flush up against her back as he gripped the handlebars on either side of her.

"Hold on," he said over her shoulder. "This is gonna be fast."

Twenty five minutes later, Bella completely understood why boys were so enamored of motorcycles. It was exhilarating, really, hurtling along just open and free and exposed to all the light and sound and sky. Everything about it made her skin sing, her nerves hum, and she might never get over this feeling for as long as she lived. It was like flying. Like falling. The wind in her face and the shift of his arms around her when they took a turn. The brush of his scratchy chin against her neck and she could have sworn the soft flesh of his lips traced a line from her shoulder to her ear when they hit a straightaway canyon chopped through a towering wall of trees. The way his thighs tightened around her when he shifted gears, how he could set one steady foot down and hold up the entire enormous weight of him and her and that giant bike all on one leg.

They stopped thirty miles down the coast. Half an hour of wind had Bella's hair in knots and her legs vibrating. He helped her off the bike and held onto her hand for a minute until she could feel her feet again before he turned the bike off and rested it on its kickstand. The sudden silence made her ears ring and she couldn't look at him, she just couldn't, so she walked down to the water again and plopped down right at the edge.

"You're gonna get wet down there," he called, settling in the sand ten yards up the beach from her, a safe distance from the tide. Bella turned away from the water and sat on her feet, water lapping at her toes, looking up at him with the mountains behind and the dark black sky above and him lit up silver like he'd fallen off the face of the moon. She wanted to crawl up the beach and kiss his face right off, but she dug her fingers into the wet sand between her knees and stayed put.

"You might be a total slime ball," she said.

"I might?"

Bella nodded. "What if you are?"

"Wanna get slimed?" he asked. Even in the dark, she could see that cocky grin, glowing white. The ocean was rushing in behind her and the sky was pressing down on her and this boy was pinning her to the sand even though he wasn't even touching her at all.

She shook her head. "Too messy."

"Ok, well . . ." He leaned forward, elbows to his knees. "What if I'm _not_ a slime ball?"

"Prove it."

He scowled. "Where'd you get off stealing cars anyway? Good girl like you . . ."

"It was Rose's idea." Bella shrugged. "Plus, it's fun."

"Well, I hope you had fun destroying the Bird," he grumbled. "Was it worth it? How was she?"

"So good," Bella sighed. "Rode like a dream."

He licked his lips. "I'll bet."

* * *

They played twenty six rounds of Truth or Lie to get her up the beach. Twenty six rounds of questions answered by movement, a foot forward at a time for each correct stab he made at figuring this girl out. Twenty six rounds to move her a mere dozen feet.

Which meant that he knew a lot about what she wasn't.

She wasn't a sister and she wasn't a natural blonde. She didn't like licorice and she wasn't born in December. She didn't like pink and she didn't like to draw. She didn't eat chicken and she wasn't ever gonna get a tattoo, at least not as far as she was concerned. By the time she was nestled beside him in the sand, he was certain that this girl wasn't at all what he'd expected either.

"You ever smoke a doob before?" he asked, digging a joint from his pack of smokes.

"Of course," she said, snatching it away. "I'm not a total prude."

"Glad to hear that." He grinned at her, watching her light the joint and puff deeply twice before handing it back, waving smoke away from her face. He took a drag as she exhaled and grabbed her by the chin, popping her mouth open and sealing his own right over it. She gasped, grabbed his wrists, but inhaled, eyes wide and on him the whole time and good god, her mouth tasted like sweet and ripe and full-on summer. He freed her lips and licked the taste of her off himself as she let his cloud of smoke drift around them, her mouth glistening.

"You just kissed me." She sounded shocked.

"That wasn't no kiss." He shook his head at her.

"Sure it was. You didn't even ask."

"I gotta ask?"

"It's not nice to take things without asking."

"I watched you steal my car, you know? _Let_ you, actually, 'cause it was something to watch . . . you on your knees like that." He winked at her, eyes still on her mouth. "Tell me your name."

"My name?"

He nodded. "I been calling you indecent things in my head all day. You better give me the real thing."

"Like what? What have you been calling me?"

"I ain't sayin'. Give it to me. The real thing."

"Ask nice," she said and he kissed her again. Harder this time. Softer. Everything in between. Lips and tongues and breath all tied up together and he knew he was good at this. Knew just how to angle his head and dig his tongue in deep. Knew just how to hold her face close and suck on her lip like she was really candy and he was just searching for that hot melting center of her.

"Nice enough for you?" he asked, lips brushing hers.

"Bella," she whispered, out of breath.

"You've gotta be shitting me."

"No." She shook her head. "That's the truth."

"Well that's gonna work out just fine, doll. I been calling you beautiful in my head this whole time anyway."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **'Stop making the eyes at me /** **I'll stop making the eyes at you'**

 **Thank you thank you THANK YOU to Hadley Hemingway for being basically amazing.**

 **Thank you, as well, for reading along.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	6. Chapter 6

Bella hadn't seen Rose or Alice in almost two days.

Something was wrong.

She didn't know what, but it had never gone this long. Alice was always in dire need of rescuing from some town function and Rose always needed someone to drive her somewhere, but all had been quiet on the western front. Bella hoped Rose hadn't gone off and gotten herself killed somewhere in a ditch or a truck or a seedy bar bathroom. She hoped Alice hadn't been shipped off to summer camp like last year. She hoped that their plans to go to the lake tomorrow were still on, but had a feeling they probably weren't. She drove to the ice cream shop, not sure what she'd do if she found them there without her. The place was quiet though. No Rose. No Alice. Just one of the boys who hung around with her motorcycle paramore sitting on the front step, licking cream and peaches from a waffle cone, sweating around the edges. He was big and dark and off the Rez, a little scary but smiling at her.

"Well, hey there, Birdy," he said, winking.

"My name is Bella."

"I know, but you're the one, yeah? The one that jacked the Bird?" Bella shrugged. "Did you know he's been under that thing for three full days now? Still can't get that baby to purr." More licking.

"That bad?" she asked.

"Worse. Gonna cost him a pretty penny to fix it."

Bella felt a momentary stab of guilt, but tried to squash it. "What's your name?" she asked and the guy smiled at her before he stuck out his hand. He was handsome, thick dark hair and deep set eyes. Nice big smile. Ice cream smeared on his lip.

"Jacob," he said when she slipped her hand into his, giving her a thorough shake. "Here, have a seat." He patted the wooden step beside him and Bella sat down. He was wearing the same vest, same patches, but his hair was long and shaggy, not slicked back. He had a tattoo of a snake on his forearm, the one holding a creamy peach waffle cone out at her.

"Want some?"

"Sure." Bella took the cone and licked the edge while Jacob stared out over the lawn. He was nice too, not just handsome. Handing over his treat like that. Giving her a nickname. She liked this Jacob.

"What's his name?" she asked.

"He ain't told you his name yet?" Jacob looked at her with raised brows and she shrugged.

"We haven't gotten there, I guess. He knows mine."

"Edward," Jacob said.

"Edward," she repeated.

"Listen, take it easy on him, huh?"

"He needs it easy?"

"Yeah," Jacob nodded, taking the cone back and licking a drip before it fell. "He plays a good asshole, but he's soft, you know?"

"I don't really know anything actually." Bella shook her head.

"All I'm gonna say, sweets, is that he needs a gentle touch. And that the shop is one block that direction." Jacob pointed. "I'll give you twenty minutes."

* * *

Edward was draining the oil when she appeared.

When her _shoes_ appeared.

Spiky pumps patterned in roses. Sky high and peep toed. These tiny little ankles and knees hidden behind the hem of a pale pink dress. He tucked his head out from underneath the Bird, staring up at her and, good Lord way way _way_ up there in heaven, he promised to dedicate his life and soul to eternal salvation if he could only spend the rest of all of it right there. At her feet. Her all done up pink and pretty with flowers in her hair like that. He'd try real, real hard not to be that slimeball he claimed not to be if this was the reward.

"Well, hi there, doll. Didn't expect you here." He grinned, pushing himself out from underneath the car and standing up alongside her. Close. Maybe too close. He might get her dirty, might smudge up against all that pink, but he didn't care. She smelled so good, _really_ good, like she'd rolled around in violets and peaches. Like she's driven around with the windows rolled down and the wind rushing up from the ocean, salt and sand, but maybe he was just thinking of the other night. Of kissing her. Shoving smoke and then his tongue between her lips and _fuck_ , he wanted to do that again.

Right now.

Bella strode around him and settled herself in the driver's seat, all one hundred pounds of her doing nothing to threaten the jack. "Feels good to be back here," she mused. "Miss me, baby?" she asked the Bird, caressing the steering wheel while Edward ground his teeth and shoved his hands in his pockets.

She looked good in that car.

Too good.

"Of course not," he grumbled. "She's in the ER because of you."

"I heard it wasn't going well." She looked up at him and he shrugged.

"I'm doing what I can, but the axle is shot."

"Shame." She dropped her hands to the cream leather on either side of her hips. "Seems a waste of such potential."

Oh, the potential. Talk to him about potential, why don't you? That dress was cut high at her ribs with a full skirt that would flip right up over her waist and he could have her pinned to that seat in no time, fuck the jack. Fuck the tranny. Fuck the chips and the dents and the mangled gear box because this girl was rubbing her thighs like she was needy or something.

"How'd you know we were here?"

"Jacob. I met him at the ice cream shop."

That fucker had skipped out on Edward nearly an hour ago, _of course_ that's where he'd gone. Edward muttered something nasty about Jacob under his breath and kicked the floor with the toe of his boot.

"Don't listen to anything he says," he grumbled.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Bella said.

"He's full of shit. That's why his eyes are so brown."

" _My_ eyes are brown," she said and yeah, they were, but he liked hers. They were the amber of fresh, clean oil. Jacob's were just shit. Edward rolled his eyes, trying not to stare at her.

"When I get this girl going, I'm coming to pick you up in it," he said

"You know where I live?"

"Big house with the gate, yeah?"

Bella shook her head. "That's Alice's. I'm over in Westbrook." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You followed me?"

"Sort of," he admitted.

"What's your definition of _sort of_?"

"I know your license plate." He grinned.

"That's my dad's car. He's a cop."

Edward felt his stomach drop just a little. Shit. "A cop, huh? He got guns?"

"Lots of them."

"He use 'em?"

"When he needs to."

"How's he gonna be, when I show up?"

"I'll do what I can, but you might want to wear your funeral clothes." Bella pulled herself from the Bird and stepped right up in front of him, the neckline of her dress squashed up against his chest. She fingered the patch on his vest, the name stitched into the fabric, the two dates that bordered it, and looked up at him.

"Just so we're clear, you don't know me at all."

"I know what your mouth tastes like," he said.

"I know your name," she whispered, right before she left.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **I will never, ever, ever stop thanking Hadley Hemingway.**

 **Your time, smarts, friendship - all are irreplaceable.**

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	7. Chapter 7

He showed up at the perfect time.

Right when she was finished with her lipstick, pale peach this time. Right when her father had finished berating her about her messy room and her short skirt and her forgotten books. Right when she'd pulled on a shirt and pulled up her skirt and fastened it all together. The roar in the driveway was unmistakable. She could feel it in the ball of her foot, the grumble of that beast underneath it, and ran to the window.

It was the Bird.

Alive. Breathing. Belching in the driveway and he was standing beside it, hand on the roof and that fucking smirk on his face like _yeah I did it, and here I am, so come and get me._

She flew down the steps. Blew past her father and his questions and she ran all the way to the car, flinging herself up against the door with a grin on her face that she just couldn't keep to herself.

"You did it!"

"I did. I keep my promises." He winked at her and ducked into the driver's seat, pulling her inside and taking off before she even had the door closed. He had his hand on her leg and cigarette between his lips and a wicked smirk on his face like he had something planned.

"Where are we going?"

"Right now, I'm just driving." He squeezed her leg. "Later, I'll find somewhere to stop for a while but, right now, I gotta just feel this, ok?" He put both hands on the wheel and straightened his arms, flexing his fingers.

"Just drive then," Bella said, kicking her sandals off and putting her feet on the dash, letting her hair blow out the window and her arm reach across the seat all the way to Edward, fingers twisted up in the hem of his shirt. He smiled at her. A real one. Not a sexy one or a cocky one or the one he used when he was sweet-talking her. Just a smile. Pure and plain and simple and she was kind of spun on this boy and the way he manhandled the car. Palmed the gear shift and stroked the gas. Urged the beast into a coast, the one that felt like floating, and Bella threw her head back to let the wind kiss her face. She was so stuck there, wild and lost, that she forgot where she was until he was pulling to a stop in a wide grassy field.

Edward threw the key and tHe beast churned to a stop. He tugged a flask from his back pocket and spun the top open.

"It smokes, but does it drink?" he asked.

"Yes, please." Bella nodded, taking the flask and a solid swig.

Edward took the flask back and drained a mouthful. "Ever shoot a gun?" he asked.

"No."

"Wanna?"

Bella nodded her head eagerly. Maybe a little too eagerly. He gave her a worried look and she hopped out of the cab, watching in fascination as he opened the trunk and laid out his weaponry in the grass. He gave her ear plugs and lessons on bullets, calibers, loading and safeties, how to not lock your shoulders too tight or your knees too much because it needed nothing except a gentle touch. A breath let free and then a squeeze. Both eyes open.

"I want to shoot that one." She pointed out a big thick black one, one that looked imposing and serious and was far bigger than anything he'd let her get her hands on yet.

"No fucking way. That'll knock you right on your ass, doll. I ain't taking any chances."

"But that's the one I want."

"Can't kiss you if your mouth is busted up." He smirked at her.

"Is that your plan?"

"That's the beginning of it."

* * *

He was buzzed. Maybe it was the sunshine, the heat or the late afternoon spin or the sexpot with a pistol in her hand, but he was drunk. Mouth watering and fingers itching and she was baring her shoulders and her good aim. Picking it up too fast for his liking. Looking downright deviant with that Mag in her hands and her legs spread wide to keep her footing. Edward took the gun after she unloaded it into a far off target. Tossed it aside, empty now anyway. He pushed her all the way up the to trunk of the car and slammed it closed.

"The things I want to do to you," he panted.

"Tell me." Her palms hit the metal, bumper hit her knees.

"You'll run. Screaming."

"I don't scream."

"You wanna bet?

He nudged her feet apart before he dropped to his knees between them. Tossed her skirt and groaned. "You girls and these fucking ridiculous panties," he grumbled. Bella wiggled her ass at him, wrapped in blush colored lace, cut high and deep and, fuck him, he moaned right into the soft wet spot there between her thighs. She squealed and wiggled some more and he had two hands on her trying to keep her still but she was impossible.

"Keep still," he mumbled.

I can't believe you're-" she gasped, his fingers prying aside the lace and his face burying into her. "I can't-"

Edward palmed her ass cheek and pulled it aside, wrenching his face away to get a good glimpse and, fuck him, it exceeded every expectation. Just pink and wet and dark damp curls and he went back in for more, tongue intent on making her break her no-screaming statement.

"You can," he said, lips to her crotch and his fingers slipping in behind.

She lifted a foot off the ground, toe to the bumper, angling herself higher and he lurched onto his knees, following, always following, her thighs starting to shake around his cheeks. He let her hips go long enough to fumble with his belt, his fly, his briefs, his cock pulled free. He was stiff, achingly stiff, and it was her fault. Her look and her taste and her moaning which was progressively getting louder. Her skin and her softness and her soft flesh between his teeth . . .

He spilled his load into the dirt between his knees and when he dropped her off at home, her voice was still hoarse.

"My dad's gonna smell the guns on me," she rasped.

"Probably." Guy was a cop, after all. "But he should've taught you by now. Every girl should know how to protect herself."

"That's why I wear a big ring." Bella held a fist out toward him, a giant ring with a big plastic rock sitting heavy on her finger and yeah, she could probably break someone's nose with it, or take out an eye. "Rose says that every girl needs a big ring in case she needs to punch someone."

"You planning on punching me, doll?"

"Not unless you deserve it." She winked at him, which was his move, and waggled her ass at him clear up to the front door of her house.

He watched her all the way.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **It's my birthday!**

 **No really!**

 **As ever, my heart and my exuberant comma usage belongs to Hadley Hemingway.**

 **Thank you for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

Bella busted Alice and Rose at the soda fountain. They had their heads tucked in low together, whispering secrets, tangled fingers, and Bella stomped right up to them on the verge of a fit.

"What's even going on with you two? I haven't seen you for days, and now I get _this_? Last time I saw you, you were ready to kill each other," Bella grumbled. "Now you look like you're . . ."

Rose looked at Alice, and Alice looked at Rose, and Bella just stood there while they stared at each other.

"It's complicated, Bella," Rose said, still not looking at her.

"So say it simple," Bella snapped.

"It might be love," Alice whispered.

"Might?"

"Might," Rose repeated, nodding.

"You're kidding me, right?"

They both shook their heads.

"Fine!" Bella threw her hands in the air. "You'll be happy together; you're the two most infuriating people I know." She turned and stomped away, still on the verge of that temper tantrum. Her dad had taken his car fishing that morning, so she had no other option but to foot it, and she walked blindly, not even caring where she ended up. By the time she reached Ash Street, she was all cried out and moving on to anger.

The blue Bird crawled to a stop beside her.

"Hi there, pretty girl? Ever had a real man before?" Edward grinned the cocky smile at her, lowering his glasses to undress her slow and sure and calm right there on the sidewalk with nothing but his eyes.

"Nope." She kept her mouth tight and her brow arched. His mouth fell open.

"Well, that's gotta be fixed, doll." He leaned across the seat to shove the door open. "Get in, baby. I'm taking you for a ride."

"Who says I want to be taken anywhere?"

Edward's jaw tightened. "You just tell me who put that look on your face, and I'll go beat the shit outta them." He was glaring at her, at the furrow between her brows.

"You can't hit girls," Bella sighed.

"Who's this?"

"Alice and Rose."

"Your two chicks? With the jackets?"

Bella nodded.

"They been ignoring you for boys?" he asked.

"Not exactly."

His eyebrows lifted. "Girls, then?"

"Each other, more like it."

"Well, damn. You ever thought about it, doll?" Edward bit on his bottom lip like he was anxious for her answer.

"No, and I'm not going to. I have a thing for a five o'clock shadow, and sadly, girls only get those on their legs. Not their faces."

"I've got a thing for stubbly legs," he laughed and revved the engine. "C'mon. You're stalling."

* * *

They were parked on the bluffs, the cliffs that overlooked town. Eating candy and smoking weed and drinking tequila. He was flat on his back on the ground, grass tickling his ears and sunshine tickling his face and something that felt warm and fuzzy fluttering in the spot between his lungs. He was on the hook, wiggling. Snowed in and she was the blizzard. Cranked way up high, as high was he could go, and this girl was too much for him maybe.

Maybe he was falling harder than he thought he could.

Bella sat up, her cheek imprinted with the denim pattern of the vest, fingering the patch on his chest. "Who is Jasper?" she asked.

"My brother."

"And Emmett?" She glanced at the other patch.

"My other brother."

"They're dead? Both of them?"

He nodded, unable to actually say the words.

There had been only a shy six days between them; not even enough time to get over Jasper before Emmett took himself out too. Part of Edward didn't want to believe it, but his mother swore that it was Emmett's depression, the little black raincloud that followed him around from day one like it was tied to his wrist, never far away, always in periphery. Those two boys had less than a year between them and were tight, never far apart, always together, even in death. Edward was twelve years younger than they were, the annoying kid brother who could just never quite break into their circle, and they were gone before he was even old enough to appreciate them. He was freshly sixteen, had a shiny new driver's license and he got two lessons, right in a row, about just how dangerous driving with a fucked up head could actually be.

Jasper had been drunk. Emmett had been sad.

Jasper drove his bike right into a retaining wall. Emmett wrapped his truck around a tree.

"Jacob said to take it easy on you."

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of a mess," he admitted.

"I like messes. They're a sign of genius."

"Oh, really?"

She nodded.

"You saying I'm smart?"

"I'm saying that I'm not scared of you."

"Even when I drive too fast?"

"Even then."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Love love love to Hadley.**

 **"When she walks her footsteps sing a reckless serenade."**

 **-Arctic Monkeys**


	9. Chapter 9

She let him take her virginity before the party, not after.

She wasn't a complete cliche.

Just sort of one.

Toeing the line. Tugging on the ropes. The good girl, falling in with the wrong crowd. The straight A student who got a boyfriend and started smoking weed and was all of a sudden bringing home C's that she didn't show to her father. She wore her purple ruffled girl pajamas to bed and then changed into black before she slipped out her window and ran down the street to the Thunderbird idling at the end of the block with the headlights off. She climbed back into bed at daybreak, drunk on kisses and groping and maybe some alcohol too, but mostly just Edward and his mouth and his curious fingers and his Bird.

He taught her a lot in that car.

He taught her how to lick his cock, panting _yes, no, not like that, like this, yeah harder baby, faster, suck it, suck it deep, hold on doll, good girl, fuck yes_. Taught her how to pull his hair, scratch his face, _bite me baby, bite me everywhere, I want all those other girls to know that I belong to someone, to you, bite me, bite me again_. Taught her how to sit in his lap and grind on him, skin to cloth to cloth to skin, and _get off on me doll, rub that sweet pussy of yours on me, fuck, fuck, god you feel so fucking good, ride it baby, ride it._

She had bruises on the back of her hips from the steering wheel behind her.

Bruises on her nipples from his teeth and his hands.

Bruises on her lips from his mouth.

So when she tried on her dress, the one she bought two months ago with Rose and Alice at some store in the mall, the one that matched theirs, and they'd all looked so perfect together, everything was sore and achey and it wasn't her wearing the dress at all. The girl who bought that dress was gone. The woman in the mirror, the one wearing it now, she was new. Almost a stranger.

"You can't wear that." Her father was leaning in the doorway, glaring at the dress.

"I have to. It's all I've got."

"You have a closet full of clothing. Find something else."

"Dad-"

"You heard me. That Cullen kid coming to pick you up?"

Bella nodded.

"He treating you decent?"

She nodded again, this time a little more enthusiastically. Was he ever.

"Well, that's good. But no boy is gonna mind his manners while you're dressed like that. Change. Now."

Bella huffed loudly and barely resisted stomping her foot. Her father shot her a sharp eye.

"Don't make me arrest him. It'll ruin your whole night."

Bella was changed and waiting on the front step when Edward showed, pulling the Bird up to the curb. She was in the car before he could even make it out of his door.

"I ain't meeting the old man tonight?" he asked, sitting back down behind the wheel.

"No way. He's in a mood."

"We still going to this dreadful thing? Or can I change your mind?"

"We have to go. I want to show you off."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. You clean up nice." He was wearing a black suit jacket and a crisp white shirt and had his hair oiled back and that one curl flopping in his face and a massive belt buckle sitting right over his crotch. A long skinny black tie and he'd shaven, looked older, leaner, suave, with that suit on.

All black. All guy. All putting her to shame.

Jaws were gonna drop.

"Drive slow," she commanded. "I gotta change."

"That so?" he asked.

Bella pulled the short silver dress out of her bag and crawled into the backseat, eyeing Edward through the rearview.

"Don't look," she said.

"No promises," he laughed.

* * *

She stripped down naked in his backseat and expected him not to look.

She obviously thought a lot more highly of him than she probably should.

Before she even got that new dress on over her head, he had the car parked somewhere dark and shaded and off the road just enough to kiss the shit outta her for a little while. He dove into the backseat and yanked the dress out of her hands, tossing it aside, reaching for her to feel around on all this new naked skin of hers. The way her ribs shifted and her hips twisted and her blood pumped thump thump thump in her wrists as he drug her closer.

"You feel motherfucking incredible," he groaned as she sat in his lap. "How'd I get so lucky?"

"Chance," she said. "One in a million." She undid his belt.

"I'm such a bastard."

"No," she sighed, tugging his zipper tooth by tooth.

"I am. A lucky bastard."

"Wanna get lucky, bastard?" She smirked at him, digging him free and toying with the elastic of her underwear, tugging it aside.

"God, yes."

"Then get lucky," she whispered, rubbing her soft and wet on his hard and hot and oh fuck, he didn't want to hurt this sweet little thing, but he wanted to eat her too. Swallow her whole but maybe fondle her a bunch first. His blood was racing, and his hands were shaking, and he wanted to be gentle for her, wanted to be tender, but he wanted her too bad to mind his manners, and he was a savage. A bastard. A lucky fucking bastard.

He stopped her just before she could impale herself on him.

"It might hurt," he panted.

"I don't care."

She was heaven. A hot mouthful of blackberry cobbler. The sweet, creamy melt of ice cream. The kiss of the wind when you hit sixty. The golden highway that led to Oz, or hell, or that big pearly cloud in the sky where the old bearded dude gave you a solid clap on the back like atta boy, get that girl, and don't you stop until you got her tight enough to keep her, and don't you ever let go son 'cause you stumbled across a miracle by accident, total accident, but I'll let you keep her only so long as you hold on tight.

Bella cried a little when he finally got in. Cried and urged and begged him to go, just go, and don't stop. He made it quick. Got there fast. For her. For him. She couldn't take much, and he couldn't last long, not after weeks of pawing her tits and slobbering all over that gap between her legs. He'd taken it slow, real slow, but now was not the time for slow so he was taking it fast. He hoisted her to her knees, pumped strong and quick half a dozen times and tugged out before he spilled, stroking himself with a tight fist until he came all over her bare stomach and her tits.

"Sorry, he grunted, "didn't know what else to do." He searched for something to wipe her down, the skirt she'd been wearing when she got into the Bird, and she laughed at him as he cleaned her up.

"You make the cutest face when you-"

"Don't even start. You should see yours. In fact… " He grabbed her, tugged her close and slipped his hand underneath her ass, between her legs. "I wanna see it again. A couple of times."

Just once, right now. He was saving the others for later.

When they pulled up in the Bird, everyone was staring. Groups of suits and dresses, all eyes, all whispers, all hiding their mouths behind their hands, and none of them blinking. Didn't want to miss a second, those gawkers.

"They're staring," he whispered in her ear as he pulled her from the car, tugging the hem of her dress lower 'cause he didn't want any of these fuckers getting a glimpse of what he'd just had his hands all over.

"Let them." She took his hand and marched right through the crowd, parted that shit like this sea was red, and she talked to God on the direct line. She was glowing. Like, really glowing. The sex glow girls get when they've gotten off a few times and are in love with the guy who did it to them. That guy was him, and it put a grin on Edward's face he didn't even care to wipe off. He tugged her out onto the dance floor, not much for dancing, pretty useless at it actually, but he was using every excuse he could lately to get his hands on her.

"I'm falling hard for you, doll. Fast."

"Freefall?" she asked.

"No 'shute."

* * *

 **AN:**

All of my gratitude belongs to Hadley Hemingway.

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	10. Chapter 10

A week later, Bella and Edward stumbled up the stairs and into her bedroom, sealed together at the mouth, hands frantic and feet tangled. Edward was half-undressed, his shirt forgotten on the front step and his belt undone. Bella's dress was yanked down around her waist, and her lipstick was smeared across her face, more of it on Edward than her. Her father was gone, some work thing in another state he'd forgotten to mention until late last night. He warned her to stay out of trouble before he left that morning, and Bella thought the house was empty, ready for the taking. She was ready. Ready for more, always more, some sort of unquenchable dehydration that could only be cured by Edward in her bed and his body filling up parts of her she didn't even know had holes to fill. He had her by the tits, and she had him by the hair, and they would have done the deed right there, right then, right on the floor, forgotten the whole world, but her room was already occupied.

Alice glanced up from the bed when the duo tumbled through the door, her hand on Rose's shoulder as Bella tore herself off Edward and shifted her dress up over her nipples.

"What are you doing in here?" she asked.

"Hi," Alice said.

"Hi back. Long time no see," Bella grumbled, and Edward slowly threaded his belt back together, the sound of the metal buckle the only noise in the room. Rose's shoulders shook, and Bella glared at her two friends. "What's wrong?"

"We got caught last night." Alice looked away as Rose looked up, and Bella's hand flew to her mouth.

"Holy shit, Rose." Bella exhaled heavily and darted to the bed, using a gentle hand to examine Rose's face. Her eye was blackened, swollen shut, a bruise purple and red splotched down over the socket, and her bottom lip was busted. Her cheek was rubbed raw and scabby, like she'd been grated across rough asphalt. Bloody knuckles and broken nails and Bella feared the very very worst.

"Did they-"

"No," Rose choked, dropping her chin back to her chest. "At least not literally."

"Who?" Bella asked, looking up at Alice.

"Newton's boys," Alice said. "We were by the lake. They were drunk."

"What did they say?"

"Nothing really, they just burst out of the trees."

"And?"

Alice sighed heavily. "They made me watch."

"What the fuck?" Edward growled, all three girls turning to look at him, all three of them only now remembering that he was there. He balled his hands into fists and scowled. "Who are these guys? I'm gonna kill them."

Bella said, "No, Edward," at the same moment Alice asked, "You really would?"

* * *

"They beat up a girl?" Seth licked his ice cream, sounding like Edward was trying to tell him a fairy tale. Unbelieveable, too ridiculous to contemplate. Dragons and witches and shitheads who would dare lay a finger on a woman much less a fist or a boot, and yeah, that shit was pretty fucking unbelievable.

"They deserve to rot. I'm gonna make that happen." Edward slammed a fist into his palm. The memory of that girl's face, the girl with the name of a flower, beaten to a wilted pulp all because she didn't want some asshole's dick made him sick. He dropped his strawberry cone into a garbage can two licks in and was choking back the urge to vomit.

"Hell no, you aren't." Jacob shook his head. "I've heard about them. Those kids run in a group of twenty."

"And I run in a pack of three. Maybe five, if I can talk Peter and Sam into it."

"Setting us up for slaughter, man," Seth lamented.

"Those pansies? Tell me we haven't dealt with more," Edward barked. Seth and Jacob both shook their heads.

"Dude, you wanna wave a banner, that's totally cool," Seth groaned. "But why over some chick you don't even know? This is for Bella, isn't it?"

"Don't you dare bring her into this," Edward snapped.

"You don't gotta prove it to her, man. That girl is balls deep, ok? She gets it." Jacob was still shaking his head. "You're batshit for her, and she knows it. You don't gotta go off and play the hero to get her attention."

"This isn't about her."

"Sure it's not," Seth argued. "You're just gonna go off and pick on guys we don't even have beef with over a couple of lesbians."

Jacob's face twisted a little. He glanced at Seth, then at Edward. "How bad was it?" he asked.

"Damn near busted that eyeball right outta her pretty face," Edward hissed. "Rubbed her up and down the dirt real good, fucked up her mouth."

"Did they... take her?" Seth asked, gulping.

"No. But they held her girl there and made her watch them kick the shit out of her."

"The girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"That's so fucked," Jacob muttered.

"With me now, boys? Are you getting me?" Edward asked. "These low-lifes deserve a spanking, and we've got the upper hand here."

"And what's that, exactly?" Seth asked.

Edward stood, dusting his hands down his jeans and slicking back his hair.

"They don't know we're coming."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **My heart belongs to Hadley Hemingway.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	11. Chapter 11

Edward parked the Bird and turned to Bella, a sly smile on his face.

"I gotta run inside. I'll be fast." He kissed her mouth, squeezed her leg, and loped into the building across the lot, sexy in those jeans and that hair and the swagger. Bella toyed with the radio and stuck her feet out the window and imagined Edward kissing her between her legs. So far, that was her favorite of all the things he did to her. He did a lot to her, actually, and it all felt good, better than before, better than ever before every single time, but his mouth on her pussy was beyond it all. Way beyond. There was a spot on her down there, a spot he seemed to know about, and he toyed with her until she broke and was smashing his head between her thighs, crying out, clawing the sheets, the car, the grass, his hair.

She was pretty sure she was in love.

Something moved at the building entrance, and she expected him. It was him, but he wasn't alone. A spill of one, then four, then nine, then more boys spilled out of the doorway, all of them already locked in battle, some of them already bloodied. A roiling sea of fists and feet and broken-off legs of chairs tumbling into the parking lot, screaming and yelling, and faces hitting the concrete.

Bella scrambled upright, breathing fast.

Someone smashed right up against the driver's side door, a boy bleeding down his face. His eyes went wide when he spotted Bella, and he reached in through the open window to grab for her foot. She screamed and kicked him in the nose. Fresh blood, but it didn't deter him. He wrenched the door open and dove inside, Bella screaming and kicking with her back up against her own door and nowhere to go. He got a grip on her ankle and was about to pull her loose when he went limp and still instead, head heavy in her lap. Bella squirmed, wrenching the door handle and all but falling onto the pavement. She scrambled to her feet, and Jacob was panting on the other side of the car.

"Get outta here. I don't even know why he brought you," Jacob hissed, and Bella yelled just in time for him to miss a swing from some polo-shirted asshole coming up behind him. Jacob ducked, and Bella knew then that these were Newton's boys. That Edward and his boys had gone after Mike and his cronies.

For Rose.

A yell to her left, a blur of color, and she barely had time to react.

She swung.

* * *

Edward was beating the shit out of some blonde kid with a tiny green alligator patched onto an ugly blue collared shirt when he heard her scream.

His girl.

He sprung to his feet, holding that kid up by the shirt and punching until he went still and limp. He looked around for her, scanned the rough and tumble being beaten out all around him. Seth was on some dude's back, clubbing him in the neck and yelling that old war cry his granddaddy taught him when he was just a kid and still cared about being an Indian. Paul was just along for the ride, the fun, always one for a little violence, and he was taking on two guys at once, knocking their skulls together hard enough to send them stumbling to the ground. Jacob was near the Bird, beating down some skinny kid with an Ivy League haircut, and there she was. Bella. He caught sight of her just in time to watch her swing that little fist of hers and flatten a guy twice her size. He fell limp at her feet, and she looked at her balled-up hand, her face full of awe.

Edward gave the kid in his grip one last blow for good measure and let him drop. He sauntered through the brawl, right through the mess like he was Jesus, and these low-lifes were just water. He nudged aside a duo locked in combat, ducked a swinging fist, eyes on her like she could lead him right through hell if he just let her. She looked at her fist again and gave him a wondrous smile, and he grabbed her by the collar. Looped his fingers in the neck and tugged her roughly up against him, to scoop her off her feet and kiss her, fuck his swollen nose or his bloody lip or his aching ribs.

He couldn't breathe, but it wasn't his busted ribs' fault. It was hers, this girl who got his blood all over her face when he kissed her.

"You are so stupid," she said.

"Can't you just get over it and thank me?" he smirked. "We won."

He was right. Newton's boys were painting the pavement, and Edward's crew, kids off the Rez with the blood of warriors running through them, were standing around looking bored. Bella pursed her mouth up and shook her head at him.

"Thank you."

"For what?" he teased.

"For leaving Newton in a pile." Her eyes darted over his shoulder, and he glanced back at the blonde alligator kid, still slumped in a puddle of blood.

"That's him?"

"That's him."

"Get behind the wheel, doll. Let's run him over."

"You can't go to jail." She shook her head. "I'd miss you too much."

"You're the one driving," he teased. "I'd bail you out."

"How? You couldn't afford my bail." She tugged his hair, blushing.

"I'd sell the Bird."

"You wouldn't," she gasped.

"I would," he said, honest. "In a second."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This chapter was inspired by a certain Skins episode (the UK version, not the MTV trash.)**

 **Frankie and Luke forever.**

 **Hadley has my heart. Always and forever.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	12. Chapter 12

Dusk. The sky frosted pink around the edges, the fireflies were out, and the sun slipped away, moon in its place.

That was Bella's favorite time of day.

The Bird was pulled into the last row at the drive-in, way back by the trees, the big white screen kind of small from this far away, the sound running slow, the actors' lips one step ahead or twelve steps behind. The speaker was scratchy and warped, the voices droning loud and then soft and then loud all over again, but it didn't matter. Bella didn't even know what movie they were watching. She didn't care and couldn't be bothered by the fact she was wasting a whole entire dollar on her ticket.

Who cared about a movie when Edward Cullen had his hands up your skirt, and your fingers were in his mouth?

Not her.

Not by a long shot.

He'd beaten up Newton in a parking lot across town an hour ago, and he looked a little worse for wear, but he was still the handsomest boy she had ever laid eyes on. The swollen lip and the busted eyebrow only made him look a bit more dangerous, and he looked dangerous enough most of the time as it was. He'd ditched the bloody t-shirt, used it to clean up his face, the thinning beater beneath doing very little to help her keep her hands to herself. Watching him walk toward her through that brawl, through the blood and the beatings like he was some golden angel of war, made her feel a little bad she hadn't been back to church in so long.

Maybe God was trying to send her a message, this boy bursting through battle like he was bulletproof or something.

It seemed that her little stunt in the parking lot made her a bit more alluring too. Edward had barely taken his eyes off her since, pulling her to the middle of the seat when they drove away and paying for movie tickets with one hand, barely parking before he launched himself at her, advertisements for candy playing in the background while he breathed into her neck and dug beneath her underwear.

"I want inside," he whispered. His voice came ragged and rushed, and he was already pawing at her clothing, panting down her neck, but there were people everywhere, milling around between the cars and darting off toward the soda fountain that also sold hot dogs and snow cones, which meant they'd get caught.

Surely they'd get caught.

"No. No, we can't." She tried to shove his hands away, but he was persistent, and his mouth felt so good up against hers, and he was fingering the folds between her legs like he was playing Mozart, and she was just the piano. She gripped the collar of his shirt and tried to focus.

"We can. We should. I want it," he panted, tucking his slippery fingers deeper. "You want it."

"I can't get caught. My dad. The guns," she reminded him.

"I won't get you caught," he groaned.

"You will. You're loud."

"You're loud." He pulled away, his face accusing.

"That's your fault," she said, and he instantly smirked.

"I'll control myself."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed.

"Don't trust me yet, doll? I ain't ever done you wrong." He still had his fingers buried, and she was still clutching his shirt collar, and she still hadn't had her fill of this boy. Maybe she never would.

"If we do this, you have to help me with something later," she said.

"Anything."

"Anything?"

He nodded.

"You don't even know what I want yet. It could be dangerous, it could be ridiculous— how can you just agree like that?"

"You're underestimating." Now he was shaking his head instead of nodding it.

"Underestimating what?"

"Me," he said. "The deplorable things I would do for you." He pinched her viciously, hard and fast at the very top of the slippery slide between her legs, and her whole body shivered. "All you gotta do is ask."

Edward pulled away, withdrew his wet mouth and his slick fingers and sat back behind the wheel again. She'd messed his hair all up, flopping it forward into his face, and he slicked it back with both hands, his chest heaving. He caught his lip between his teeth as he started to unbuckle his belt, peeked sly at her a few times, then opened his pants and shoved them down his legs.

"C'mere. Come sit on my lap." He grinned at her, all sex and sneakiness because no one had any idea this boy was sitting there with his pants undone and his dick in his hand like it was nothing, just nothing, to do this in public. Bella flushed bright tomato red, hoping he couldn't see it in the dark, but the far off lights were bright enough that she could see his bruises, and they probably weren't hiding her blush either.

It was obvious by now that he could talk her into anything.

She edged closer, a little panicky but really turned on, really, and tried to straddle him, but he stopped her.

"We're watching a movie, remember?" He winked at her and pointed at the faraway screen with the black and white faces flashing back and forth and back, and she didn't care at all about that damn movie, but she did what he said. Turned to face the screen, draped her legs over his and pressed her bare toes into his boots, his palms under her helping her settle on top of him. He sighed when she hit, rushed his hands up to her tits, and licked her neck.

"Hands on the wheel, doll. Hold on tight."

* * *

She was wearing white. White patterned with tiny little black hearts and it almost did him in, this dress. It hugged every curve and fell right off her shoulders and poofed out in his lap like he was sitting on a cloud, and he had to push it aside to see her ass pressed snug up against his stomach. Her knuckles were just as pale around the wheel, and her breath was coming slow and shallow, but he wasn't even moving. Not at all. Just sitting there using a good grip on her hip bones to pull her deep and then push her away. Tug her back and then slide her off. Smooth and slow, really fucking slow, so slow it would be hard to tell unless you watched, really watched, and watched for a while because the car wasn't shaking, just his insides.

Bella squirmed a hand between his thighs and fingered his balls.

He jerked. Thrust. Hard. It was unintentional, a reaction, but fuck, a reaction felt good. He'd only told her to do that a few days ago, the ball thing. He'd been lounging flat on his back on the seat of the Bird with her mouth wrapped around him and his fingers tangled in her hair. She drug her nose and her lips, wet and slick, clear down to the base of him and just her breath, just her breathing on him, had him writhing. He tried to say yes, yes baby, yes, yes please, yes thank you, but he could just pant her name. She must have gotten the message because his balls were in her mouth, and her fist was pumping his cock, and the next thing he knew, he was painting his own chest with his spunk.

Edward put his hand firm on the small of Bella's back, and she groaned. Loud.

"Quiet," he warned, pressing down harder on her clit. She mumbled something and pushed herself upright, rocking her hips against his lap in a languid spiral. He wrapped his arm around her waist, burrowing beneath the fabric on a blind hunt for her slit, and when he found it, finally, she fell forward against the steering wheel, more groaning, even louder. Edward pulled her off the wheel and slipped his hand over her mouth, his chest hammering up against her back and the shell of her ear right there at his mouth.

He pushed up, pushed forward, pushed deeper, and hummed in her ear. "Look at you... so fucking naughty, sitting on my dick in the middle of all these people," he whispered. "I've ruined you."

He sent her off for an ice cream afterward. Postcoital sweet tooth. Watched her run between the cars with her ponytail bouncing and that dress of hers kind of crumpled in the back from his hands. She was the fucking cutest thing around by far, for miles, clear to the sea and then even beyond that. Maybe the cutest thing on the whole entire planet and she'd been on him just moments ago. Him.

Him.

What a lucky bastard . . .

Edward lit a cigarette, and it only took him thirty seconds, but when he looked back for her, the vermin had already struck. He was leaning up against the counter with his face too close to Bella, and his hands just itching to touch her. Edward knew it.

Twitchy fingers, that Teddy boy.

Edward recognized him from the hallways at school, one of the upper echelon that crowded around their lockers and looked down on everyone who walked by. Money kids. They wore patterned socks and rolled their corduroys up around their ankles to show them off. Bow ties and pocket watches and big, thick, rimmed glasses, even when they didn't need them, and they didn't even drink. Stone cold sober, quoting dead dudes, but they didn't even read Salinger. Edward didn't read much, but that just seemed like blasphemy, ditching J.D. for Archimedes, picking Plato over Vonnegut. Edward usually had a greasy rag in his back pocket, but these kids used embroidered handkerchiefs, and they didn't need those suspenders like he did either, their tailoring affordable instead of luxurious.

"What he say to you?" Edward asked when Bella plopped back into the Bird and handed him a dripping cone.

"Nothing really," Bella shrugged, licking her ice cream, that pretty pink tongue flashing him.

"No, really. What did he say?"

Bella looked at him with a sharp face. "He asked my name and if I went to Public." Her frown slipped suddenly, a sly grin crossing her face. "Why, Edward Cullen, are you jealous?"

"I got nothing to worry about," he grumbled, licking his own cone.

When they pulled out of their spot a few minutes later, just before the end credits rolled, to miss the rush, that Teddy was standing under a light by the soda fountain, leaning up against a pole with a smug look on his face, watching as they drove by.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Oh, hey, hi.**

 **Life has been on the far side of absolutely bonkers for both HH and I, but we're still here.**

 **Every square inch of my heart belongs to Hadley.**

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **xo**

 **HBM**


	13. Chapter 13

It took four rocks to get Rose to the window.

"Bella?" She leaned out, peering through the dark. Bella stepped into the light a little.

"Alice with you?" Rose nodded, and Bella gave her the "Well, come on then!" head shake toward the street before she slipped back into the shadows. The girls came running down the darkened driveway ten minutes later, all giggles and holding hands until they saw the Thunderbird. They faltered, stopped completely, and almost turned around, glancing at each other until Bella flung open the door to the back seat and waved them on. Rose crawled in first, then Alice, and Edward rolled the car clear down the hill before he pounded on the gas, the sudden angry growl from the engine sending all three girls in the back seat into a fit of fresh giggles.

Alice gave Bella a kiss right on the mouth, and Rose handed her a bottle of something rose- colored and wickedly sweet, sweet enough to make Bella's teeth ache.

"Something happened today," she said, sounding ominous and braver than she really was.

"Newton and his boys. They got a lesson in manners." Bella smiled.

"A lesson?" Rose asked. Alice was just staring at Bella, her mouth clamped tight to hold back a grin because she knew exactly what Bella meant.

"A lesson," Bella said, nodding

"An 'eye for an eye' kind of lesson," Edward spoke from the front.

"You didn't!" Rose exhaled at the same moment Alice squealed, "You did it!"

Edward nodded and turned them sharp onto a back street, deep at the edge of town. Rose fumbled for Bella's hand in the dark, and Bella held her tight.

"I was gonna say you look like you fell into a pile of fists." Alice peered at Edward, his busted lip and his eyebrow that definitely needed the stitches he was still refusing.

"Hey, I gave better than I got," Edward muttered.

"I'll bet," Alice laughed, launching to her feet and flinging herself across the seat to wrap her arms around him. "Thank you," she said.

"No sweat, babe. I got your back." He patted her arms with one hand and even from the back, Bella could tell he was smiling despite that lip.

"Stop the car." Bella put her hand on Edward's shoulder, and he pulled the Bird up short beside a sleek white Roadmaster.

"This it?" he asked, glancing back over his shoulder at her.

"This is it."

"I'll wait."

Bella shook her head, but he shook his right back.

"I'll wait," he repeated.

Rose was staring out the window at the white Buick, a pretty hard top, while Alice was staring at the exchange between Bella and Edward, her eyes darting back and forth between them.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Bella grinned. "We have a car to lift, girls."

They got it open in record time. Guess it wasn't something that got lost even if was left forgotten for too long. Not something you exactly grew out of. Edward waited until Bella had the car revving before he slunk away, the growl of his engine finally roaring to life a block away. Bella jetted off toward the mountain, slipping easily out of town. Rose leaned over the back seat to wrap her arms around Bella, put a kiss on her cheek, and mess up her hair.

"Missed you," she said before flopping back.

"Sounds like you've been having fun." Alice grinned from beside her, and Bella shook her head. Between the parking lot and the movies, the public spectacle she made of herself, and then the boy in the tailored jacket —printed houndstooth— and the funny striped socks at the soda fountain, the one that called her Dolly . . .

"Today was the strangest day ever," Bella said. "You won't even believe it."

* * *

There was a cop car in front of the garage when Edward pulled up.

He'd driven around aimlessly for a little while after he left the girls in that Roadie. Bella picked just fine, great even, when she tapped that car. It was a new model, which these days meant air conditioning and power windshield wipers. He ended up at the shop because he had nowhere better to go and recognized the cruiser immediately. Edward took his time going in, finished his smoke and then lighting another one, glaring at that car and wondering what was gonna happen just beyond that door there. He stubbed the second smoke out with his boot and grumbled all the way inside.

"Ed." Jacob leapt to his feet, face ashen. Edward put a hand out to still his friend and looked right at Bella's old man.

"Mr. Swan."

"That's Chief, son." The older man extended his hand, and Edward figured that was a damn good sign, this guy wanting to shake his hand first, so he shook it back, nice and firm and steady.

"What brings you down, Chief? That cruiser out there not runnin' so smooth?"

"Not here about that, kid. Sit down."

No handshake was gonna make those words sound any better than ever before. Edward sat and Jacob sat and the Chief sat after them, rubbing his hands on his knees.

"Seems the Newton boys saw a bit of trouble this afternoon. Know anything about that?" Chief asked.

"Yes, sir," Edward said, and Jacob shot him a stricken look, shaking his head frantically.

"You do?" Chief sounded surprised.

Edward nodded. "It was me."

"You?"

Edward nodded.

"Just you?" Chief squinted at him.

He nodded again.

"Sixteen of them." Chief squinted harder. "You," he said flatly.

Edward nodded again. He wasn't about to give up his boys, no fucking way, and he knew better than to bring the girls into it either. Some high school punks were one thing, but the real world was another. Most folk looked down on girls like that and wouldn't give one raw fuck what happened to them, be it a fist or a boot or a gun. He was keeping this one all to himself.

"You lying to me, boy?"

Edward shook his head, and the Chief sighed, shaking his own as he stood and fumbled with the cuffs at his belt.

"Damn, kid. Was starting to think you were smart there for a minute, you dating my daughter and all, but you just went and proved me wrong."

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Love love love me some HH.**

 **I'm much less of a mess, grammatically and personally, with her around.**

 **XO**

 **HBM**


	14. Chapter 14

Edward spent exactly four hours in a jail cell.

Four hours before Bella tracked him down.

She marched Rose down to her dad's office and right through his closed door without knocking. He fumbled off a phone call and blinked wildly at his daughter as she asked him how he liked their makeup, the heavy purple shadow they were both sporting. He was confused, poor guy, but only for a moment, and he watched in horror as Bella wiped Rose's face clean. When Rose admitted where the bruises had come from, he stood, silent and staring and shaking his head before walking down that long fluorescent hallway to set Edward free. Bella ran after him.

"Get the hell outta my cell, you stupid little shit." Her dad grabbed Edward by the shirt, up off the cot and onto his feet. He was kind of scary when he was in uniform. "No one likes a hero, boy, especially not me. You got some nerve," he hissed.

"I'm no hero." Edward shook his head, stumbling to his feet when the Chief dropped him. When her dad turned to look at her with his hands on his hips and his mustache twitching and his hair going grey everywhere now instead of just at the sides, he looked worried.

"You sure about this?" He hooked his thumb over his shoulder at Edward, and Bella nodded.

"Yes. He's important."

"But stupid," her dad muttered, turning back on Edward with a pointed finger, and Edward had to good sense to flinch a little. "You want her, you stay on the straight, kid. Next time you play the Lone Ranger, I lock you up for real."

* * *

It took six weeks for Rose's face to heal up completely. Six weeks of cover-up and ice packs. Six weeks of the three girls all sporting dark purple eyeshadow like it was their new dime or something. Six weeks of bruising up their eyes so no one would notice Rose's weren't fake.

By the time the bruises had finally faded away, the Newton boys were still locked up.

It took nearly as long to convince Edward to let her drive the Bird again.

"C'mon baby," Bella whined, wriggling in his lap. "I wanna drive her. Far and fast and hard." She kissed his lips, hoping to convince him with her mouth and her innuendoes and maybe her tits rubbing up against his chin, but he shook his head.

"I'm still paying off the damage from the last time you wanted something like that," he said.

"I'll play nice. I promise." She bit her lip, thinking. "You can tell me if I'm being too mean to her."

"You know, you're kinda cute when you're nice."

"What about when I'm not nice?"

"Fucking hot," he grinned, grabbing her hard enough to make her squeal.

"You know what I want?" Bella said, some time later when he was groaning into her neck and tugging her hips across his lap, slow and steady.

"Tell me," he breathed.

"I want you to get me off."

"Working on it."

"While I'm driving." She yanked on the hair at the back of his neck, and he hissed as she pulled him off her neck, his eyelids fluttery and his mouth all swollen. He hadn't shaved in two days, and Bella was coated in rugburn. She loved it.

"Then you'll really crash her," he laughed.

"No way to know unless we try."

* * *

Edward sat in the middle of the big front seat, his arm slung over the back and around her shoulders while Bella drove. Her hair was splattered across his chest, and he had his hand under her skirt, and she was breathing hard, blinking fast, knuckles white on the wheel.

"Take a right," he commanded. Bella pulled them smoothly onto the lonely highway that stretched clear to the reservation on the other side of the mountain. Desolate and pretty damn abandoned most of the time. He clutched her shoulder, pushed aside her panties, and got his fingers just wet enough to pull them free and taste her.

"Edward," Bella gasped, turning the wheel a little late and veering over the line by a couple solid inches. She stared at his fingers tucked between his teeth. "Edward, maybe this was—"

"Watch the road, baby," he whispered.

Edward slipped his hand back beneath her clothes and stroked her, keeping one eye on the road and one eye on the neck of her dress. Her legs clamped closed before they opened, her knees spreading and her hips pushing that spot right into his hand. He ground his teeth together as his pants tightened, and he pushed her underwear aside again, this girl already dripping all over the seat.

"Fuck it all, babygirl. Fuck it all, except for this." He meant to say something about her slick heat, her beautiful body, her fucking gorgeous face, but all he really knew right now was that he wanted to get inside this girl, and he never wanted to come back out. Usually, girls just threw the door open. They didn't even invite him in, didn't say hello, just drug him inside and he always wanted out the moment he stepped foot over their thresholds. This girl though, Bella, he had to work for her. He had to knock, a lot, and yell, a lot, and even then she wouldn't let him in. He was near ready to kick her damn door down by the time she opened up a little, and then he had to coax her along to get over that invisible boundary of yes, yes I want you and no, no you're not allowed here that blocked her entryway like a wall.

Now that he was in, really in, he didn't give one single solitary fuck about anything else.

Bella groaned and pushed her hips, pulled him deeper, bit her lip, and let her hands go slack on the wheel.

"Hey, you're driving us here, remember? You got a job to do."

"I-" she stuttered, holding on a little tighter. "You're making, making me, making it—"

"Making it what?"

"Impossible," she exhaled, shuddering as he ran the pads of his fingers around every slippery inch of her. He pulled his fingers out again and pushed them up through her folds, through the slick, tugging her between his knuckles and groaning when she swerved again.

"Brakes, doll. Brakes," he said, and she lifted that shaky leg, and he put a hand down on her knee to help her slow the Bird. Edward dropped to his chest on the seat and hooked his chin over her thigh. Dug his fingers in a little more and flicked his tongue out over her. She squealed and writhed and said his name at least twelve times before he stopped counting. Before he stopped licking or teasing and shoving one, two, three fingers into her and squashing that little nub of magic up there with his thumb. Before she threw her head back and came close to ripping his hair right out of his scalp.

He took her to the arcade afterward, a pocket full of pennies rattling at his thigh as he followed her around, helping her win. Giving her one or two or five coins at a time, slinging the last balls, hitting the last shots, winning her the prizes, but letting her pick.

He was lounging in the shade with a lemonade and the stuffed bear he'd won her six stalls down when that Teddy fucker, James, strolled by.

"Edward." James stopped.

Edward tilted his chin but didn't say anything. James walked over anyway.

"Haven't seen you 'round at all. Find something to keep you busy this summer?"

Bella squealed.

She was across the way trying to toss ping pong balls into weighted cups, and Edward was surprised she'd managed to win, but judging from her jumping and her clapping and the fish in a bag the gamekeeper handed over, she had. James lifted both brows and looked back at Edward.

"Saw you with that Dolly at the flicks the other night. I'm surprised you went all the way to the slums to find a girl. You could have just taken your pick from the meadow, the girls at school are all aflutter over you."

"Fucking Judies," Edward muttered. "You can have 'em."

"There's something intriguing about low girls, though, isn't there?" James asked, squinting at Bella.

"Low?" Edward didn't like the sound of that.

"You know," James drawled. "Low morals. Low intellect. Low standards."

Edward swung. Sure and fast and straight into that Teddy fucker's mouth. All he could hear was the Chief telling him not to be a damn ranger, but surely he'd forgive this. A brawl over his daughter's virtue, her honor—surely he would. At least Edward hoped so, because he was gonna make this kid beg.

James crumpled. Crying and squirming and holding his face and Bella was beside Edward, tugging on his arm. Edward gave James one last solid kick to the ribs and spit in the dust an inch shy of the kid's bloody nose.

"You so much as look at her sideways, I'll show you low," Edward growled and let his girl haul him off before he broke any more bones.

* * *

 **AN:**

 **Thank you for reading.**

 **Also, HH is my solid foundation and my soft place to land.**

 **XO**

 **HBM**


	15. Chapter 15

It was 8:37 pm when Edward knocked on the door.

Her dad got there first.

"I don't want any trouble tonight— you kids hear me?"

"No, sir." Edward shook his head. He had his hands in his pockets because his knuckle was surely broken from punching that fancy boy right in the face the other night. "It's an important day."

"That so?" her father asked, and Bella watched Edward stand up a little straighter.

"My brothers died two years ago," he said. Plain and simple, but Bella could tell it hurt.

"Yeah, I remember," her father mumbled. "The Cullen boys." He looked off over Edward's shoulder. "Damn shame 'bout that, son. Damn shame."

Edward nodded solemnly. "Don't gotta tell me, Chief."

"You doing something special?"

"We're gonna drive up the mountain to pay our respects, sir."

"Not gonna go crash your car up there, right, kid?"

"I like her too much to die." Edward tilted his head toward Bella, a slight smile on his face. "We won't do anything drastic, but if you see some smoke, well—"

"Don't come with your sirens," Bella finished, glaring at her dad.

Her father stared hard at the boy on his porch for a minute before he nodded, his eyes pinching. "Fine. You got three hours. Make it quick."

Edward grinned big and goofy and grabbed Bella by the hand, dragging her all the way to the car with a manic laugh in his throat. He squashed her into the seat and kissed her silly for a minute before she pushed him away.

"My dad!" she reminded him, shoving him aside.

"Old man likes me," Edward smiled and gave the house a wave before he rounded the car for his seat. He wrenched the key, slammed the car into gear, and chain smoked up the mountain, singing and laughing and trying to get his hand between her legs all the way. His broken knuckles between her thighs. He'd told her what that boy said about her, why he'd hit the kid so hard and so many times. Even though there was a mean streak in this boy, he was honorable and sweet underneath it all.

She'd tell him tonight, she decided. Even if it scared him off, she had to tell him.

They stopped on a curve, a big dead pine on the edge with a yellow ribbon tied around it. Bella peered at the tree through the windshield before looking carefully at Edward.

"We're not really gonna—"

He was nodding.

* * *

It was August 17th.

Didn't feel any different. He still woke up in his bed wanting to kiss the fuck out of the sweet little mouth and then the sweet little crease between the legs of one girl, and one girl alone. Still woke up hard and wanting and thinking of her. He didn't even remember the day until he was in the shower, beating off to thoughts of Bella. By the time the water ran cold, the only thing he knew was that he wanted Bella, wanted her bad, and he wanted to destroy something.

"What are we going to do to it?" Bella asked him.

"Blow it up."

"What?"

He'd only shrugged like he wasn't sure yet, but he knew exactly what he was doing. Last year it had been Jasper's wall, a half pint of gin, and a sledgehammer. This year, he had a ten gallon jug of gasoline, a book of matches, and Emmett's tree was fucking doomed.

Bella sat on the hood and smoked a cigarette while he doused the tree, walking an endless circle around it until the can was drained and talking to Emmett the whole time. He didn't even say anything important. Just stupid stuff about this girl he'd found and how he was starting to see the sun again, instead of all the black and gore and muck. About how their mom still made cake on their birthdays and they always ended up tossing half of it because no one had a taste for cake quite like Emmett and with him gone...

Edward threw the can at the base of the tree and said his goodbyes in his head, silent and staring, before he turned away.

"I think I love you, Edward Cullen," Bella said as he approached, tossing her cigarette aside and splaying her legs for him to step between them. "I really think I do." Her eyes were deep, like she'd been thinking heavy thoughts, and that adorable wrinkle was there between her eyebrows.

"You're still thinking, doll? I've been done thinking for a while now."

"You've known? All this time?"

"I knew from the moment you stole my Bird, baby. I'm pretty well gone for you. Real gone," he admitted, throat tight.

She looked up from the flame, eyes wide. "How gone?"

"You make my brain slow down and my heart speed up."

She put a hand to his chest. "Is that all?"

"Lord, no," he groaned. "Not by a long shot.

"What else?"

You make my mouth dry. My cock hard."

"I can tell," she grinned and wiggled against him.

"You first." He handed her a match and pulled her off the hood.

"What do I do?" she asked.

Edward pulled her close and thanked his lucky fucking bastard stars for this girl who was asking him how, not why. He kissed her good and thorough before he walked her toward the tree, leaning in close to speak low in her ear, with his arm around her shoulders and his heart beating hard enough to make him dizzy.

"Light that little fucker and run, doll. Light it and run."

* * *

 **The End**

* * *

 **AN:**

 **This was fun. Fun to write, fun to research, and fun to giggle over with Hadley.**

 **Thank you for joining us.**

 **XO**

 **HBM**


End file.
